GRENADA

COUNTRY OVERVIEW

LOCATION AND SIZE.

Grenada is an island situated between the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic
Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago. Its total area is 340 square
kilometers (131 square miles), about twice the size of Washington, D.C.,
and its coastline measures 121 kilometers (75 miles). Grenada has 2
dependencies in the Grenadines island chain: Carriacou and Petit
Martinique. Carriacou (pronounced Carr-ycoo) lies 37 kilometers (23
miles) northeast of Grenada and is 33.5 square kilometers (13 square
miles) in area, while Petit Martinique lies 4 kilometers (2.5 miles)
further north and is only 486 acres in area. The capital of Grenada, St.
George's, lies on the island's southwest coast and is the
only town of any size.

POPULATION.

Grenada's population was estimated at 89,018 in July 2000. This
figure marked a drop of 0.36 percent from the previous year and a
reduction of more than 2 percent from the estimated 1991 population of
91,000. Grenada's population has been declining for several
decades despite positive statistics in terms of child mortality, life
expectancy, and death/birth rate ratios. This is largely explained by a
high rate of migration, calculated at 16.54 migrants per 1,000
population (2000). Grenadians migrate in large numbers to neighboring
islands such as Trinidad & Tobago, where employment opportunities
are greater, or more commonly to the United States and Canada. At
current rates, Grenada's population will stand at approximately
86,000 in 2010.

Grenada's population is youthful, with 38 percent of Grenadians
under the age of 15. A majority of the population lives in rural
villages, and the World Bank estimates that only 37 percent are urban
dwellers. The island is small enough for people to work or conduct their
business in St. George's without living in the capital. About 85
percent of the population is of African decent, with smaller mixed-race
and Indian communities. The latter are the descendants of indentured
laborers (servants or laborers who pay an employer for transit to the
employer's country, and work off their debt, often for many
years) brought to the island after the abolition of slavery in 1833.
English is the island's official language, though some Grenadians
speak a French dialect, and Roman Catholicism, observed by 53 percent of
Grenadians, is the dominant religion.